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A trial filed by two female high school plains over a controversy involving a trans athlete in California has partially survived movements to reject.
Taylor Starling and Kaitlyn Slavin, girls cross-country runners at Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California, filed the trial in November 2024. They claimed that a transgender athlete took Starlings Varsity spot and that they were confronted to wear shirts saying “Save Girls Sports” in protest.
In the case, Martin Luther King is claiming the shirts compared to the shirts with “swastikas.”
The defendants include Riverside Unified School District (RUSD), California Law Attorney Rob Bonta and State Superintendent for Public Instruction Tony Thurmond. But Bonta and Thrumonds were rejected from charges in the decision.
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Ryan and Taylor Starling from Riverside, California (With the permission of Taylor Starling)
US district judge Sunshine Sykes, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, refused the school district’s bid to reject the plaintiffs’ title IX requirements based on intentional discrimination. However, Sykes also gave up in favor of the school district’s argument that the students had failed to indicate the requirement of a violation of title IX.
Sykes maintained the plaintiffs’ standing to pursue monetary damage, but excluded an injunction against the school to get the trans -athlete removed from the team because the athlete has already been trained.
The families of Starling and Slavin and their lawyer from the company’s advocates of Faith & Freedom see the recent decision as a victory.
“I think the fight is far from past, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction,” Kaitlyn Slavin’s father, Dan Slavin, told Pakinomist Digital.
Ryan Starling, father of Taylor Starling, said the trial has brought his family together and built solidarity with other families in the area.
“It brought together our families, and it brought a lot of other families together,” Starling said.
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Starling and Slavin have continued to go to Martin Luther King High School while the trial has gone.
“It was a little uncomfortable, yes, very uncomfortable early last year. … so the first few weeks were pretty intense,” said Dan Slavin. “They have so many friends there that it has not had a huge impact on them this year. It’s always a little awkward when you see the administrators probably, but they don’t talk much about it.”
Ryan Starling added that teachers calmly support their daughters despite school policy.
“There have been many teachers like, kind of low low, let them know, ‘Hi, we got your back’ type of thing,” he said.
Their lawyer, Juliane Fleischer, will be looking to get more of the case earlier decisions to reject. Sykes decided that the applicants did not make any attempt to explain how a title IX equal treatment requirements apply to them and will allow them to change these claims.
“It allows us to strengthen our complaint, and it’s something we hope to do just to really target the harmful policy that California and this rivers site have in place that have targeted Taylor and Kaitlyn and so many other female athletes,” Fleischer said.
“Settlement can certainly be discussed, but at this point it is a big question of seeing what the school district is actually willing to do.”
Famine at the center of this trial has been at the center of a broader cultural movement in their county during the question of trans athletes in women’s sports.
Last year, after the assertion of school administrators compared their t-shirts with swastikas, the girls began carrying them every Wednesday and other students at the school began attending. Administrators allegedly tried to punish students who wore the shirts, which puts them in detention.
But eventually the school stopped punishing students for wearing the shirts and they were still carried every Wednesday.
The Starling and Slavin families have also offered advice to families at a nearby school, the Jurupa Valley High School, to file their own complaint against Jurupa Unified School District (JUSD) over a separate situation involving a transgender volleyball player.
Jusd student Hadeel Hazameh and Alyssa McPherson previously told Pakinomist Digital that Starling and Slavin were inspired by them by deciding to fil for a lawsuit.
“There was a lot of fear with them in the beginning,” Ryan Starling said of Hazameh and McPherson. “It takes courage. … just stand bold. The school districts won’t listen to you. The only thing they want to listen to is when you submit a trial.”
Dan Slavin added, “We talked to them and their feelings of being brainwashed.… It was really nice to hear that our girls inspired them and I hope it is a tiring effect for everyone. I hope these Jurupa Valley girls now inspire other people.”
Pakinomist Digital has reached JUSD for comment.
